Highlights:
- Researchers successfully fertilized a horse egg using IVF for the first time in the state of Florida.
- Frozen sperm, rather than fresh or chilled sperm, appears more practical for IVF.
- The Florida horse industry supports about 244,200 jobs, with industries directly related to horse care contributing about $6.8 billion a year.
The performance horse industry had a problem: Some of their most beloved and sought-after mares simply couldn’t have foals safely. To make matters more complicated, in-vitro fertilization (IVF) had not yet produced a healthy equine embryo, despite years of success in other species like cattle.
But in a significant step forward for the industry, University of Florida Department of Animal Sciences researchers recently announced they were finally able to successfully fertilize an equine egg using IVF, the first time this feat has been accomplished in the state of Florida.
To read more, please visit UF News.
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